That’s the core dynamic of “Body of Lies.” A morally murky, international espionage thriller set mainly in the Middle East, it’s about a CIA station chief repeatedly second-

guessed by his boss back in Washington, D.C., and tested by the Arab operatives who want to help him catch a major terrorist, but who suspect his honesty.

Does this sound like another war-on-terror movie, or more like a “Spy Who Came in From the Cold” or “Ipcress File” story updated to modern times?

Those involved with the film – director Ridley Scott, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, producer Donald De Line, among others – lean heavily toward the latter claim. How much we should believe them is another question.

“Honestly, this could have taken place as an espionage film any time in the last 60 years, in the Cold War, in Berlin,” says Scott (“Gladiator,” “American Gangster”). It’s like a John le Carre novel, and I like to remember that he had books made into some good movies.”

“He’s asked to do a job in a very ruthless, cutthroat, modern warfare climate,” DiCaprio says of Roger Ferris, his skilled and efficient – but increasingly idealistic and, therefore, disillusioned – undercover man. “He’s a CIA agent in the Middle East, but simultaneously has an appreciation for the people there and the culture, and is kind of trying to live in a higher moral context than his boss would like him to. He feels his boss’ bureaucratic tactics aren’t getting the job done, and he wants to create real relationships that he thinks will work better.”

Sounds le Carrean enough, focusing on the spy’s crisis of conscience and personal problems (Ferris is also getting divorced). However, the “Body of Lies” source novel was written by David Ignatius, a Washington Post international politics columnist who earlier served as the Wall Street Journal’s Middle East and chief diplomatic correspondent.

“David is a pretty serious journalist, whose passion is the Middle East,” Scott observes. “He’s spent a lot of time there, and he loves the culture, has great respect for the Arab communities.”

In the film, that’s evident in hundreds of ways. But that’s also the kind of stuff that isn’t very popular at the movies these days. War-on-terror dramas have had uniformly dismal box-office results since the U.S. invaded Iraq. Which explains why the filmmakers try to steer perceptions of the movie away from that subject while, somewhat paradoxically, expressing pride in its relevance and authenticity.

“It’s not about the war on terror,” says producer De Line (“The Italian Job”). “It leads with the fact that it is a spy thriller, not taking a position politically in any direction. But Ridley likes to give you a sense of realism and that this is a slice of a moment in time right now.”

There’s another aspect to that sense of realism. Ferris’ boss Ed Hoffman, whom Crowe put on 50 pounds to play, is both a suburban soccer dad and a cynical spy-game player who thinks nothing of sacrificing people or betraying allies for larger strategic goals.

Ferris, who’s constantly getting cell phone instructions from Hoffman, comes to regard him as completely out of touch with reality. Crowe views him more as a single-minded professional and American family man.

“There’s a moment when Hoffman’s on the phone talking and his kid needs help going to the bathroom,” the Oscar-winning actor (for “Gladiator,” the first of his four films with Scott) points out. “And it’s just a function of him being a dad that he can still do this thing. He can take his kid’s pants down, point him in the right direction, make sure he doesn’t get any on the floor and then push him off back to bed while he’s destroying something on the other end of the phone line.

“I think you would use the word insulation; there’s a distance between him and the reality of what he’s doing,” Crowe adds. “He’s playing a video game, whereas Ferris is inside it in real life.”

Seems like that might be a political statement. But the party line is that it’s more ambiguous than that.

“At the end of the day, this is entertainment,” DiCaprio says. “What I like about a film like this is that I don’t feel it tells people what to feel or how to think, nor does it have a lesson at the end.

“You might walk away with a different viewpoint about what’s going on,” the actor admits. “For me, I walked away saying, `Wow, we’re in way over our heads. This is so complex; we’ve bitten off more than we can chew, and what a highly involved web we’ve spun.”‘

However the movie is perceived, there are reasons to believe that its box-office potential is solid. Last year’s “American Gangster” was one of Scott’s biggest hits, and to “Body” he applies the same combination of dizzying action, character conflict and gallows humor. (A favorite Hoffman message to Ferris: “You’d better decide which side of the cross you’re on; I need nailers, not hangers.”) Plus, the two biggest hits of 2008, “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight,” referenced war and terrorism within the context of their comic-book worlds.

“While this movie obviously doesn’t have those fantasy elements, they were very rooted in real emotion and real issues that we’re facing,” producer De Line acknowledges. “It’s in the world; we can’t get away from that. I think audiences are smarter than we give them credit for, and I think they can handle it.”

For his part, Scott’s not worried one bit about audience rejection.

Why? Experience. His 2002 “Black Hawk Down,” though not specifically about the current war on terror, depicted a harrowing U.S. military debacle in the Muslim nation of Somalia, and ended up grossing more than $100 million in North American theaters.

“There was hesitation whether to put `Black Hawk Down’ out at that point, in January of 2002,” Scott recalls. “But what’s shocking was, on a nonholiday weekend, we did more than $28 million.”

At that time, we were still united in outrage over the 9/11 terrorist attacks and had just kicked the Taliban out of Afghanistan.

Close to six years later, moviegoers have grown war-weary, and consensus has dissipated. Consequently, people are being careful about what they say and do.

Even longtime Democratic Party supporter DiCaprio, evidently not wanting to alienate ticket-buyers or voters, is devoting his energies this election season to getting young people to register for next month’s balloting (his star-studded public service announcement on the subject hit the Internet last week).

And while Scott remains resolute that “Body of Lies” is procedural rather than political – “It’s more about process, deceit, deception and betrayal, all on the same side, which to me is unique,” he says – he does believe that his own process could set an example for diplomats. This is the fourth film he’s shot in Muslim Morocco (“Gladiator,” “Black Hawk Down” and “Kingdom of Heaven” were the others).

He’s convinced his work in the North African country is a real-life example of what Ferris’ ideals in “Body of Lies” are all about.

“I like the Moroccans, trust them, they seem to trust me,” the English director says. “They always welcome me back. It’s very easy to say, `Well, we don’t understand them; you have to understand foreign policy,’ all that. It’s bull—-. But the answer is, yes, talk to these people.

“Now, that’s a very simplistic overview. But somewhere in there, there’s an honesty in that. Someone could say, `You’re only going in there making movies.’ But I could go in there to make movies and get in real trouble, and I don’t.”